Springboks v Georgia: Five takeaways as Rassie Erasmus unearths ‘special partnership’ while ‘question mark’ remains at 10
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Following a 55-10 victory for the Springboks over Georgia in Mbombela on Saturday, here’s our five takeaways from the international clash.
The top line
South Africa continued their winning ways at the Mbombela Stadium as they disposed of a physical and gnarly Georgia in a competent display that perhaps never quite hit the heights of handling that their supporters would have wished to see.
With Grant Williams and Canan Moodie, and Ruan Nortje and Marnus van der Merwe starring in the backs and forwards respectively, the Boks used their traditional pillars of set-piece brilliance and carrying physicality to slowly erode the Georgian challenge, despite the visitors drawing first blood with Vano Karkadze crashing over after only two minutes.
However, as South Africa’s scrum and maul platform started to rumble, the Boks never looked like anything other than the high quality side they are, despite the disruption and effort of the Lelos, who can be mighty proud of their afternoon’s work.
The Springboks tries came from Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe (2), Moodie, Damian Willemse, Edwill van der Merwe (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse and Handre Pollard, with Georgia’s only efforts coming from that Karkadze try and two place kicks from Luka Matkava – an impressive figure at 10 who will certainly benefit from his experience against the Springboks defence in this match.
Boks attack challenged
South Africa may have won convincingly, but this is a team under Rassie Erasmus that sets its own standards and there’s little doubt that the lack of cohesion in getting ball from breakdown to wide channels will be of concern to the Springbok coaching staff.
It’s pretty clear that in the 2025 iteration of South Africa, the Boks are looking to play a wider game and to get their talented youngsters into open spaces. Players like Williams, Sasha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Moodie aren’t men picked for north to south running; they’re fast, footwork based players who love running with ball in hand and scoring tries.
However, in this match they struggled for the continuity they crave to strut their stuff and, for their part, Georgia should be congratulated for their power in defence and sheer commitment into the contact areas that closed down the ambition of the youngsters in the Bok backline.
The Lelos are a hugely physical side, one that competes, wrestles and spoils at the breakdown. Even the power of the Boks was tested all afternoon by the sheer weight of both numbers and Georgian bodies thrown into the contest and that, in turn, took an edge off the accuracy of passing and distribution.
Nine handling errors told its own story of the pressure the visitors exerted and credit to them, Georgia made the game difficult and ugly – possibly in a good way – extending the Springboks thinking and giving them a real test up front and in their defensive effort.
When the game broke up, heat and altitude took its toll on the Georgian visitors and with South Africa running in three tries in the last eight minutes, the scoreboard perhaps was cruel to the plucky defensive effort of the Lelos.
To their credit, the Boks found a way to cross the whitewash in those first periods, but they’ll thank Georgia for making them think on their feet and find ways of coping with their disruption and power, despite some really attractive interplay from the Bok replacements when they came on against tiring legs.
The game in numbers
Given the huge amount of territory the Springboks enjoyed, was the return they managed efficient enough? A 61% advantage in that area asks questions, despite the late flurry by the hosts, but considering Georgia managed almost parity in possession, you might glean that the Bok defensive effort was outstanding, something underpinned by the stats that showed an 85% tackle success rate, missing only 16 all evening. The outstanding Nortje led that defensive effort with 12, aided and abetted by the brilliant Pieter-Steph du Toit with 10.
With ball in hand, the disparity in numbers between the two teams is quite remarkable. South Africa managed an outstanding 381 metres from 71 carries, but Georgia will be disappointed with only 26 efforts that yielded them a tiny 107, one of the lowest returns recorded in test match history, as they chose to kick a mammoth 528 metres.
Williams’ excellence was clearly demonstrated by his clean breaks and topping defenders beaten with four, and Moodie, outstanding all evening, topped the metres made for South Africa with 68.
However, in turnovers, Georgia achieved parity as both teams grabbed seven apiece, a testimony to their commitment to the breakdown contest, but something that will certainly feature in Rassie’s analysis piece to his squad next week.
Springbok depth
As an experimental team to create even further depth in Erasmus’ deep squad resources, the Bok coach will have a big grin on his face at how some of his newbies faced up to the test in front of them.
At nine, Williams was, at times, quite brilliant. His solo break in the first half showed jet propelled boots to scythe through the Georgian defence, and in the second half, the pass out to Edwill van der Merwe to score was out of the highest drawer – long, accurate and delivered against a defence coming up at him.
Van der Merwe himself again underlined his promise; key in the modern game is aerial ability and this wing is quite brilliant in that area, adding yet another asset to the stacked Bok back three stocks.
Moodie at 13 is some operator. He can fuse power, as he did for his try, with immense gas as he demonstrated on several occasions, notably a lovely run in the second half where he ran out of support trying to field his own kick through. His partnership with the unsung dark arts of Damian de Allende looks something very special indeed and there’s a view they might just be the Boks’ premier centre partnership.
Up front, a word for the big boys. South Africa is about as short of front-rowers as France are of scrum-halves, yet once again they mined a new deep seam of talent as Venter shone in both the tight and the loose, and Marnus van der Merwe grabbed an impressive brace, whilst also nailing his set-piece basics.
The only question mark may be over Feinberg-Mngomezulu at 10 who had a wayward game under pressure from the Lelos. He’ll come again, but right now the man that replaced him, Handre Pollard, is still South Africa’s premier fly half.
Georgian pride
You have to love the Lelos. Their rise through the world rankings has been nothing other than deserved and the way they stood up toe to toe with the world champions demonstrated once again their upslope of improvement on the Test stage.
Anchored in the Tier 2 competitions, on this showing alone you have to wonder if Wales are truly a better side than the powerful Eastern Europeans. Tbilisi is a place that sells out 50k stadiums regularly for top flight Tests and something must be done by World Rugby to ensure their development and commitment is rewarded properly with a place at the Tier 1 table.
On the pitch, skipper Beka Saghinadze put in a huge shift, with 12 thundering carries and a similar number of crushing hits on Bok ribs. Giorgi Kveseladzeat 12 and Luka Ivanishvili on the flank both matched their skipper hit for hit and crash for crash as they led the defensive effort with assassin’s smiles and no less ruthlessness.
Perhaps Georgia are short of midfield firepower, a man who can control the game and get his big forwards into areas to hurt sides through the scoreboard, but on this showing, there’s little doubt about their ability to match sides on the gain line – something that will give them a platform against any opponent.
READ MORE: Springboks put innovation to one side in destructive victory over Georgia